Readers pick best webcomic (E3 edition)

by Ross Miller { May 16th 2006 at 3:00PM }

Quite overwhelmingly, Tim Buckley's stab at Sony was voted as the top webcomic of the week -- we can't help but be reminded of Penny Arcade's comic from last year's E3 regarding Will Wright's new game. The other winners were Extra Life and Dueling Analogs in second and third, respectively.

Thanks to everyone who voted, and be sure to let us know of any game-related webcomics you stumble upon this week!

Here's how everyone scored:

Tags: comic, ctrl alt del, CtrlAltDel, e32006, webcomic

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Paul P. @ May 16th 2006 3:06PM

Penny Arcade really pisses me off sometimes, especially in the instance of Spore. I understand how people can have differing opinions on it, but how the hell can they not see what everyone else sees in this game?

I can understand them not liking it personally, but their attitude is "I don't get, why would anyone ever want to play that? Will Wright is pissing on you!"

32_footsteps @ May 16th 2006 3:15PM

You know, while I'm usually not a huge fan of PA, they're completely on the money on this one.

Quite simply, nobody has played Spore but Will Wright and the rest of the development team. Everyone else just watched them play it. So we don't know if it really is as good as Will Wright claims. We don't know if you can really do as much as the hype says you can. Heck, we don't even know for sure if the control works properly.

In short, Spore is considered great because Will Wright says so. And for all we know, he is effectively just urinating on video gamers and telling us to love it. And yet, we are.

Look, Spore might turn out to be great, sure. But I think we need some hands-on time, and not some demos in a theater at E3, in order to actually tell whether or not that's the case.

Sense @ May 16th 2006 3:18PM

I think the point of the Penny Arcade strip was more that people *love* Will Wright, not equating Spore with Will Wright peeing on you. I think the point is that people love him so much, even the thought of being peed on by him elicits pure elation.

Christopher7xii @ May 16th 2006 3:23PM

Well... actually, taken from PA's impression of Spore at E3 this year I'd say they are equating spore with will peeing on you.

"Spore ? I understand that lots of people are very excited about this game and I?m happy for them. I sat through the demo and couldn?t imagine trying to play it. I?m not even sure you do play it because I don?t think it?s a game. I think it is a tool for creating a game and maybe there?s some fun in that but not for me."

I do agree with them on this one. There's nothing about this game so far that has me even slightly interested in playing it. I just liked the 3D toy making machine they had going on. I'm a fan of monster action figures, those fit the bill.

Pikachelsea @ May 16th 2006 3:26PM

I'm more annoyed by the Dueling Analogs strip, personally. Sony owns you? Uh, hardly. Not even the most hardcore Sony fans could find anything to gloat about, and pretty much everyone agreed that Nintendo had the best show.

Sense @ May 16th 2006 3:27PM

Christopher7xii,

Well, that was Gabe's impression. He's typically more of an action oriented guy. If it doesn't quickly entertain he usually dismisses it. Tycho is generally more accepting of games that take some effort before they are enjoyable.

I'm pretty sure he's had some positive comments about the game in the past. I'd link to some but my evil office web filter forbids it.

Boy, I hope Joystiq never lands on my filter's ban list. That would suck.

squeevi @ May 16th 2006 3:29PM

Not to take away from this comic or anything, I did think it was funny, but the first time I read I thought it would be clever if the name would have been Piii. a play on pee wii and PS3 ;-p

Prof-KOS @ May 16th 2006 3:35PM

"we can't help but be reminded of Penny Arcade's comic from LAST YEAR's E3 regarding Will Wright's new game" (my emphasis)

This comic is a year old. Even now Gabe is just saying that he doesn't like it. Why is it that everytime someone has a different opinion someone thinks it's slander?

Alec @ May 16th 2006 3:54PM

I'm more angry that CAD got so many votes.

Because man, I hate CAD.

figmentPez @ May 16th 2006 4:17PM

Why is Joystiq ignoring Dragon Tails for these webcomic roundups?
http://www.dragon-tails.com/

Last week's comic was a very rational explanation why the "heroes" in RPGs are always taking things out of people's homes.
http://www.dragon-tails.com/archive.php?date=2006-05-07

Derbeste @ May 16th 2006 4:18PM

@Alec

Uh oh....someone got banned. :'(

Yonkers @ May 16th 2006 4:25PM

The guys from G4 Attack of the Show played the game during their E3 coverage and splooged about it. So don't say noone has played the game.

Mike @ May 16th 2006 4:36PM

"I'm more angry that CAD got so many votes.

Because man, I hate CAD."

Agreed, I get a har har from the comic from time to time. Reading it, is like watching Carlos Mandouche whatever, the punches are too easy and you feel like you could have done something better with that 15-30 seconds.

ncxcstud @ May 16th 2006 4:39PM

To #12

What, the drones on G4TV 'splooged' about a massively hyped product? NO WAY!!!

If it's on G4 it's just another tally on their "I pleased _________, send us money to keep G4TV in the black..."

Elliott @ May 16th 2006 4:53PM

I'm glad CAD won. Sony is just grasping for free publicity any way they can, and I like it when they're exposed so blatantly.

KerB @ May 16th 2006 7:33PM

PA doesn't like Spore? Well, there's something else to add to my reasons I don't read PA :)

(Honestly how could you not like Spore? Are they insane? Or are they just THAT shallow?)

Runic @ May 16th 2006 9:15PM

"Will Wright has another approach, which probably won't surprise you, because he is Will Wright. What might surprise you is that the best article I've seen on Spore is on Gamespy. Please check out the screens made available at The Ludologist. Once you have done so, keep this is in mind: every creature, really, everything you see has been either dynamically generated or player created, and the game is attached to a database which (with tricks inspired by the demo scene) stores the civilizations of thousands of players at around 1k apiece. I guess you could say that he is making us do the work, but honestly, it's a job I'll take on."
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2005/03/16

50% of Penny Arcade likes the game, and 50% of Penny Arcade sees why people like it but feels that it is not for him.

Remember, just because somebody jokes about something doesn't mean that they don't like it.

SetupWeasel @ May 16th 2006 11:14PM

"I'm more angry that CAD got so many votes.

Because man, I hate CAD."

I've read CAD a little, and its problem is timing. They generally have a good premise and punchline, but they overextend one or the other. In the case of that comic, they have too many words doing no work in the setup.

obo @ May 16th 2006 11:59PM

The PA response was the knee-jerk reaction to the Spore demo from last year's E3. People saw a 5-minute demo of Spore and creamed; if Spore was the exact same game with Peter Molyneux's name on it, everyone would be sneering, "Oh, what a promising game. I HOPE HE KEEPS ALL THOSE FEATURES HE SHOWED OFF IN THE FINAL PRODUCT LOL"

If it was Sid Meier, it'd be, "Wow, that's a creative concept, but the average gamer isn't going to bite. He's just closing himself up in the old MicroProse-gamer niche even more. Poor guy. *sniff*"

Miyamoto? Half go, "What a kiddie game, like biology and LEGOs, 8-year-olds can go screw themselves with this kiddie crap." The other half demand to play as Link and Samus.

If it was id/Carmack/Romero, [insert Daikatana joke here]. 3D Realms, [Duke Nukem Forever joke here]. EA, [insert...] oh wait, it IS an EA game. WHOOPSIE

But Will Wright, creator of the Sims, and SimCity, and of course you don't remember SimIsle or SimFarm or SimTown or any of that crap - a five-minute demo and people would die for the man just to have a shot to play the game.

It would be very hard for the guy to do wrong. He'd have to not anticipated thousands of Penis Monsters and Titty Demons prolifigating through his Spore servers, or the copyright infringement suit that Marvel brings when my race of Spidermen conquers them all.

Nick @ May 17th 2006 1:37AM

Im not too fond of CAD most of the time, but Buckley has shined. Oh and btw I found a gaming web comic 4 u 2 b checking out http://www.fanboys-online.com

good stuff ;)

Don Jose @ May 17th 2006 4:47AM

I voted on this a few days ago, and when I did, i just happened to click on the "Pii" comic first. I didn't have to see any others; I voted for that one then and there. From a business/ethics/knowledge-of-fanbase standpoint, Sony exhibited something that was beyond pathetic while they choked HARD at E3: they told the world that, even though they want to charge more than the rest of the competition (for something totally unnecessary to most gamers), they have absolutely lost the ability to do their own creative thinking.